Patrick Chan Olympic News (Part 4), Golden 2018

It is hard to believe that Patrick’s last skating competition is over and he is now a “retired” skater. But it is wonderful to see him wearing and talking about his new Olympic gold medal. Since Friday tremendous love and respect from fans across Canada and the world have been pouring in via comments on social media – just incredible!

This is Part 4 of my blog posts detailing Patrick’s third and final Olympic journey. Read Part 1 here, and about his team event victory in Part 2 here, and his last Olympic competition in Part 3 here.

If you like this Patrick and this fan site, please share it with others. Thank you!

Recap: The Greatest Team Ever

Yes, for fun and curiosity, I took the highest individual event scores from each country that entered the team event and used those to score the team event. Result? Canada still wins!

Interviewer: Congratulations on your medal. Just a wonderful, remarkable, illustrious career, and what a way to end it with gold around your neck. How would you sum up your final games?

Patrick: It was the best one of the three. The first two, Vancouver and Sochi had their own challenges, and I think I was so caught up in the result portion of the Olympics and the exposure of the Olympics that I didn’t take the time to really look around me and enjoy every second.

Interviewer: A gold right away in the team event – just talk about that, because you could see the camaraderie.

Patrick: After Sochi it was the inaugeral event, we came second and then we realized we could have won it. So one of our teammates, Meagan Duhamel, she kind of was the forefront of it. She said, ‘we need to come back in 2018 and win it, because we have the best team, the longest standing national team that’s been through the years.’ I think we had the strength to do it and we did it in Korea, and I’m so happy about that.

Interviewer: Was there less pressure because it’s not all focused on you?

Patrick: Not in a way. For me, the long program in the team event was the hardest for me, as opposed to the individual, because you have all your teammates… it’s hard to see but, all your teammates are sitting in a box right on the edge of the ice. They’re all there, and they’re watching you, and they’re all kind of holding their breath with you, so you want to perform. You want to be able to do your portion of the team event and do it well and luckily I was able to perform to the high standard.

I want to go out on top, and I think this was definitely the best ending to a competitive career.

Interviewer: It was probably the most emotional games ever for you. I saw you read that great letter from your parents. I think that’s the first time I see you cry.

Patrick: (laughs) Yeah, I never do that. That’s probably the biggest high… Yes, the gold medal is great but that’s kind of the underlying, I think the most positive thing of this experience was that… My parents had been through a lot with me, and the ups and downs, me moving away and going through a couple rough years together and not being in contact all the time to now, it’s come full circle. My parents, to see them smile in the audience, and I saw a couple clips and to see them cheering and my mom getting excited with a smile on her face, finally… that’s a highlight, and that letter just touched the heart, because it’s been a rough journey.

Interviewer: Canadians coast to coast to coast are going to miss you. The artistry that you exude on the ice… run some footage from the Nationals here in Vancouver. Are you going to miss this?

Patrick: Luckily with skating, with Stars On Ice coming, I luckily can still perform and I can still enjoy the best parts of skating, which is performing and skating and feeling the ice and all that stuff is still going to be there. I just think it’s time to really share with the next generation of skaters and create more great skaters coming from Canada.

Interviewer: You’re still going to perform?

Patrick: Yes, absolutely. I’m young, I still love the sport, I still love feeling the glide of the ice… I want to do it on show ice. I want to go out on top, and I think this was definitely the best ending to a competitive career.

I just think it’s time to really share with the next generation of skaters and create more great skaters coming from Canada.

Interviewer: And you made a gold medal-worthy decision by deciding to settle in Vancouver.

Patrick: Yes, exactly! I totally agree. It’s been a whirlwind. I’m from Toronto, and it was a hard decision to decide if I was going to stay in Toronto where my parents are from or come to Vancouver. The outdoors of Vancouver and the beauty of Vancouver somehow just pulled me here. I’m so happy.

Interviewer: Welcome to the West Coast officially, and congratulations.

About whether he checked to see what Canadians were saying about him during the Olympics:

Patrick: Yes, of course, I mean, I saw the support from all across Canada, but I think when you’re there you really try to control what you’re reading and, with the positive support there’s also comes a bit of negative stuff, and I try not to get into it too much, you know. It’s very… you want to be there, you want to really take in every moment, every minute of it, and not let outside people kind of ruin it for your experience. Like you have to enjoy it as you want and… It was wonderful, though, the support – I just would check enough that I would see the support across Canada.

About his third Olympic experience:

There’s just a sense of a little more mindfulness. Specifically to the on-ice portion, I was very aware of making sure that I don’t… not to rush through the experience. I noticed the last two Olympics I was so eager to get to the end and to the results that I didn’t even… I kind of forgot about the process to get there first and… It’s just a classic case of just being methodical and just being a little more patient and just remembering that I earned this moment, and I really wanted to take every second of it and take it all in because it was my last one and I wanted to make the best of it no matter what the result was.

About how much pressure there was about his song choice:

Oh, the song choice. Yeah, very important, especially Olympic year. You really want to not only pick a song that appeals to you and you’re going to be hearing it a lot throughout the season so it’s a piece that you want to have a connection to but it’s also a piece that I think needs to represent you well. I feel like the Olympic year isn’t the time to try something new. It’s sometimes the time to go back to an old style… like your comfortable style warm blanket, like a song that makes you feel good because you’re in those pressure moments and you want a piece that takes you away and makes you forget about what’s happening around you and just places you in a different world, and you just perform.

Riaz: What is the true art of the struggle that we don’t get to see that led you to this point?

Patrick: There’s a lot of challenges when it came to being away from Canada, like I was training in the U.S. for about seven years before that. There was a lot of challenges in terms of being away from home for so long and feeling almost like, I was losing the motivation to do it because I haven’t been skating three Olympic cycles and I kind of lost the motivation to go and train. In those moments, you’re like, who do I turn to? Who do I go to to talk about what’s the next step? What step should I take and… All I did was really, I said okay, I need to stop and walk away from the rink for a couple days and then listen to my heart and think about where I want to be mentally. Where is a place that inspires me again? And kind of sparks something, and I came to Vancouver and…

Tara Jean: Tada!

Patrick: Yeah, I’m such an outdoorsy person, it’s so easy to just go for a hike and clear the mind, and that really is cheesy but that’s what I did and… there’s just brings a lot of clarity and maybe it’s the fresh air, I don’t know.

About the skate academy being in Vancouver:

Patrick: Yes absolutely, in Richmond hopefully. The only place that there’s property that’s affordable, so…

Tara Jean: You’re not tearing down the farm, are you?

Patrick: No, I’m not. Yeah, I’m hoping to start a skating academy. Vancouver and British Columbia is just such a beautiful place that there needs to be a skating school out here. There’s one in Toronto, there’s one in Montreal, there’s so many out East, but I just think there needs to be one out West because it’s, I think there’s so much more to just a place to train. It’s important to have a place that’s inspiring, a city that’s inspiring, an environment that’s constantly nurturing your body and your mind, so I think there’s so much more to training and skating than just being in an ice rink.

Tara Jean: You just reminded me why I paid so much for my mortgage. Thank you!

Patrick: (laughs) I’m about to, too, so don’t worry.

Tara Jean: Welcome to the club. Can we get a nice closeup shot of that gold again?

Patrick: Yes, absolutely, yeah.

[Shows off his gold medal.]

Tara Jean: Look at that.

Riaz: Beautiful souvenir. Patrick, you did us proud. Another big round of applause! Patrick Chan represented Team Canada! Now, when you get that school going, maybe TJ and I will come down for a lesson.

Fans Treat Him Like Family

Of course they like him!

February 27: Odds and Ends

February 26: Vancouver: Return to the West

Patrick returned warm welcome in Vancouver this morning! He was in good spirits despite sounding a bit hoarse, as if he had cheered his socks off at the closing ceremony or is getting sick. Either way, he will now get a good rest at home. See a video from News 1130:

Patrick: We’re a very experienced team, I think we’re very close. We’ve been traveling together for a long time and we’ve competed many, many times, and not only in figure skating in all sports. There’s a lot of veterans on this team, so we all I think, performed to our best. And of the three Olympics I did, this is by far the best one.

Watch another video of his homecoming in the Canadian Press Video link below:

Chan said it was just beginning to sink in that he’d won gold in the team skating event.

“It’s a nice feeling,” the Toronto skater said with a grin, adding that he plans to leave it in his suitcase for a little while.

“I’ll take a look at it every once in a while. It’s sometimes better to keep it away and then just enjoy it once in a while.”

“I’ve waited for so long, in a way,” said Chan, who recently relocated to Vancouver. “It’s a new beginning and a rebirth.”

But first, he’ll enjoy a rest.

“I’m going to just take a week to not do anything, not be a skater, not be an athlete and just enjoy B.C., enjoy everything I love about this place,” he said. “I miss all the hikes that I’ve been going on.”

Patrick: It’s been a very very frustrating path to this moment. Three months ago, I almost didn’t want to go to the Nationals and make the Olympic team. I almost just threw it away and brushed it aside to move on and start the life I’m going to start now, but a bit earlier. It’s not easy. It’s not a pretty road. It’s not going to be the textbook fairy tale story getting to the Olympics, or the path to it. I think it’s always riddled with challenges and unpredictable things .

My approach to these Olympics was very different than the last two. It kind of gave me the time and the preparation to really plan this out to be an experience for myself, an experience where, no matter the results, I can walk away feeling like I’ve accomplished something for myself.

I hope that my legacy just shows a side of skating that I hope will inspire future generations.

Eric and Patrick

February 22-23: Kurt, Noses, Hockey, Fans, and No EX Gala

With Kurt Browning at Canada House

No Exhibition Gala Invite

Unfortunately, despite being a team gold medalist, Patrick was not invited to the Exhibition Gala… I don’t agree with this!

@ISU_Figure@Olympics Why was team gold medalist Patrick Chan not invited to the Gala Exhibition? This will only strengthen the impression that the Olympic team figure skating event is not as important as the individual event. Please reconsider! pic.twitter.com/s9CjBqqG7B

Patrick: Oh, what I am most confident about… I’m going to have to say… my nose. Because I don’t have a very wide nose, which I’m very grateful for. My dad has a very, very large nose, so… Like Scotty, Scotty’s nose is pretty pointy.

Patrick: (sighs) I left. I left right away so… to get here, but I think we were pretty positive. It is what it is, the shootout is unpredictable. It’s the flip of a coin.

Jay: Scott Moir. Did we find someone to get him home safe?

Patrick: Designated driver? (laughs) Luckily, we have a lot of buses running to the village. But he was fine. I think we just got really emotional. We’re very emotional people, that’s why we’re in figure skating… he was loving it. We were trying to imitate what we did in Sochi. We were very energetic and he was, and I think everyone in Canada thinks the same. Like some of the calls were a little questionable but, none of my business.

Dan: Canadian sports royalty Patrick Chan as the sun sets on us here in South Korea. The Canada-USA game – how was the mood over there?

Patrick: (sighs) I left. I left right away so… to get here, but I think we were pretty positive. It is what it is, the shootout is unpredictable. It’s the flip of a coin. I think if it was another overtime period, it would have been better.

Jay: Did we find a DUI for Scott Moir? Did we find someone to get him home safe?

Patrick: Designated driver? (laughs) Luckily, we have a lot of buses running to the village. But he was fine. I think we just got really emotional. We’re very emotional people, that’s why we’re in figure skating… he was loving it. We were trying to imitate what we did in Sochi. We were very energetic and he was, and I think everyone in Canada thinks the same. Like some of the calls were a little questionable but, none of my business.

Dan: But it’s such a unique moment, when you see that, all your Olympic teammates just joining together.

Patrick: It is. We got there on the first period, it was a little quiet. Then everybody started coming in the second period, third period, so yeah, the energy starts growing and it’s a team that we’ve kind of grown up together since Vancouver 2010.

Jay: That’s a long time.

Patrick: It’s a long time and we’ve kept in touch, the COC does a great job keeping us together and talking and we have great meetings and we’ve really chewed it off, so it’s really fun. It’s not the same without them.

Jay: Look what you’re wearing around your neck, there. How does that feel, buddy?

Jay: That’s not too shabby, right? For you, what does that mean to you and your legacy as a skater, Pat?

Patrick: Yes, it’s great. Like a gold medal feels really special. It’s what I’ve dreamed of, but it’s funny how it’s really what I’ve learned along the way, like to get here, and at the end of the day, it’s going to end up in my shoe box, it’s more…

Jay: You keep it in your sock.

Patrick: And a sock for now, yeah.

Jay: Everyone’s keeping their gold medal in a sock.

Patrick: Because if someone’s going to steal it, their not going to look through a sock, right? So…

Jay and Dan: Right, right.

Jay: Not your pants, maybe?

Patrick: My underwear, maybe? (laughs)

Dan: How do you view your legacy, because it must be overwhelming. Do you ever take the time to look at what you have accomplished?

Patrick: I look back to Sochi and when I finished those games, it was a very different feeling than I have right now. I felt like I gave it my all in Sochi. I was the best athlete, I was the top of my game, but little did I know, when I stepped on that ice in Sochi, I didn’t feel like I wanted to be there, I wanted to really enjoy every minute of that program. But here in Pyeongchang yes, the result was completely different, and it’s a different sport, a different circumstance, but I really stepped on that ice and said, “you know what? I’m going to take this for myself. I’m going to enjoy every second of it and I didn’t have a chance to do that before, so I’m really happy I did that here.

I would watch a TV show of Scott Moir and Patrick Chan, where Moir gets them into fun high jinks that turn into full blown adventures while Chan tries to talk him out of it because he just wants to go home. #pyeongchang2018

Even though you can’t be at the game with @Pchiddy, @Rad85E and @samueledney, you can stream every event on the CBC Olympics app. Find on demand game highlights and up to the minute scores and schedules.

More Lovely Comments From Commentator and Fans

Think about this: #TeamCanada may never see a greater generation of figure skaters or athletes in one sport. Tessa Virtue, Scott Moir, Patrick Chan, Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford combined to win: 11 medals at the #Olympics and eight World Championships #PyeongChang2018

Everyone on the team deserved that gold medal! So proud of you all! Thank you, Patrick, for all the wonderful programs you have skated for us. You will always be known for the contribution you have made to skating – beautiful jumps done with exquisite artistry.

@NBCOlympics Patrick Chan without those jumps was still much more enjoyable to watch then Nathan Chen. Maybe there should be a separate jumping event? Reminds me of our over-emphasisis of Math and Science at the expense of humanities and arts.

February 18-19: Post Competition Fun

Now that his Olympic competition experience has concluded, Patrick can hopefully finally relax and enjoy the rest of his time in Pyeongchang!

The Letter That Had Patrick Crying

Wow, Patrick’s story just gets better and better. Who wouldn’t want to receive a letter from their parents like this? His face was radiant, even as he shed tears of joy. I am so happy for him and for Mr. and Mrs. Chan! (Transcript below)

Patrick: Omigosh, okay. Dearest beloved son, congratulations. You have worked hard, persevered, and represented Canada at your third Olympic games. We are so proud of you, as always.

More important than Olympic medals and international victories, you have demonstrated your desire to learn and improve by dedicating countless hours to hone your craft. You have succeeded in instilling self-discipline and the will to excel. Throughout many challenging moments over the years, you have displayed calm and dignity, and always maintained a sense of humor.

I’ve never done this, I’ve never cried on camera, but holy crap…

You have grown up from a curious little boy to a kind and compassionate young man… (takes tissue) who cares about others and wants to make the world a better place. All this will will carry you in good stead in the next chapter of your life. Take a moment to kick back and enjoy the moment in life. There is much to celebrate.

I’ve never done this, I’ve never cried on camera, but holy crap… Yeah, I think my parents and I have had our challenges. I’ve had my challenges on the ice, and for them to be there when I’ve… to see me change, to see me be a young skater on the ice to leaving them and being on my own, and then coming back and being here at my third games and…

Yeah, I don’t know, it’s emotional because they’ve never… they say parents will always love you from Day 1 to the last, so thanks, Mom and Dad.

These were the tears I was hoping to see Patrick shed after one of his performances, but this is even better. Yes, much thanks to his mom and dad!

The Care of Olympic Gold Medals

Don’t misplace that sock!

Patrick Chan's number one tip for other medalists is to keep your medal in a sock lmaoooo

Facebook Q&A

Patrick answered questions from fans on Facebook. I am very happy because he answered several things that I had observed and tried to communicate to him. He definitely has grown in wisdom and self-awareness!

Note: This was actually done on February 17, but I’m including it here. Transcript highlights below. (Video link)

Jacqueline: How are you?

Patrick: Very good, thank you.

When asked about whether the points system will go back to rewarding clean skates:

Patrick: Absolutely, I think because we’re having the conversation already, it’s going to happen. Unfortunately, skating moves very slowly and it takes time to morph and change and I think it will take a few years for people to get over the technical bubble. And it’s exciting, we love seeing these guys push the limits of quads and how many they can do in one program but, I can tell you from experience that even being having a love of just skating and not necessarily jumping…

When I started to focus more on the jumps and doing more quads, my quality of program and choreography definitely went down, so I just hope for the sake of the skaters, that they’ll one day be able to experience what skating with full power and freedom will feel like, because there is a sense of freedom with jumping, but there’s nothing quite like gliding on ice, going a million miles an hour.

Patrick: I think we have a really good system now since 2010 in Vancouver we’ve really paid attention to growth in amateur sports. We just have so much more attention now and exposure with how accessible everything is. If anything, I would say that, I hope that we can… I mean, I would like to do my share of the work and give back and share my experience as an amateur athlete.

I wish, looking back at my career now, I wish I had learned more about the mental toughness and having a conversation with yourself and knowing how to compete on the day that counts. I come from a sport that’s a very young sport, so I grew up skating without, being very mindless, and just going with pure feel and letting my body do it, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that it’s important to be mindful when you’re skating, and it’d be a shame to skate on the world stage and not have the mindfulness to enjoy it and really take it all in, instead of just letting it go right by you.

I didn’t get exactly what I wanted but I got it in some way and I think there’s a lot more to learn from that.

When asked what was going through his mind at the end of his free skate:

Patrick: It’s hard to pinpoint what you’re thinking in those moments. I was very relieved, I think, and proud of the fact that I… I just remember how it felt. I felt good. My last experiences in Vancouver and in Sochi, I kind of ended and immediately started criticizing myself and looking at the mistake I had made, and what I didn’t do instead of looking at what I had achieved at that point.

The minute I took my starting position, before I even got to the end, I was already feeling so good about myself, I felt like I wanted to be there, I wanted to enjoy every second of that program because I deserved those minutes that I earned to be here, so I took full advantage of it and I just wanted to end the program and think to myself that I really make the best of every second of this moment, and I feel like I did.

I feel like I’ve been in the best shape of my career, and that’s me saying that when I’m 27. I would have thought Sochi was probably the best; I was the best athlete at that point. But little did I know, I would be even better. I went in feeling confident, I didn’t have fear of losing steam at the end of the program. I was just present the whole time, and that’s an experience.

(Holds up gold medal) Yes, it’s great to win this, but being on that ice and commanding the moment is really I think the highlight of my experience.

Jacqueline: That’s awesome. So Pyeongchang was a different experience, and majorly diffrent from Sochi and Vancouver?

Patrick: Yes, very different. Vancouver, I was just young and brash and wanted a gold medal because it was a home game, and totally let the experience go right by me. Sochi, again, in some way I let it go right by me because my mind was just so set on winning gold and proving to everyone I’m the best in the world, and only a medal can prove that.

But unfortunately, that made it so that my experience, I just forgot how to skate, I forgot how to enjoy myself, I forgot to just do the sport because of the love of it, and I didn’t want to let that happen this time, this third time around, because it’s not going to happen again, and I wanted to make the best of it.

Jacqueline: Did you always appreciate that? Or did it take you maybe closer to the Pyeongchang games to kind of…

Patrick: Yeah, it took me this year. (laughs) Yeah, the summer, like the summer of 2017 to realize like… or start having that conversation that it’s great to win gold, like it’s our dream, and it’s… I dream to be on Olympic podium, standing on the top, by myself. That’s, I thought about that but on the other hand, it’s okay to not be at the top all the time.

There’s… I’m 27, I have a lot to look forward to, and I have a gold medal in some way or another, it’s funny how the world goes that way. I didn’t get exactly what I wanted but I got it in some way and I think there’s a lot more to learn from that. I’m so proud of walking away, having grown up, and being a different athlete, a different person, a better person, I think and… yeah, I look forward to the rest.

[They discuss Yuzuru – see transcript below the video clip of this section further down the post.]

About Nathan:

Patrick: It’s his first games, that’s amazing.

Jacqueline: Was there anyone who stood out for you particularly?

Patrick: Unfortunately, I didn’t see the last flight of men because I was doing media. Being third to skate, I tried to peek every couple seconds on the TV, but I knew it was a hard fought battle. Everybody laid it down, and I’m so glad I was able to hang on and be a part of this wonderful group of men that have pushed the envelope beyond that I ever could imagine.

And I’m so proud of Yuzu and proud of Javi, especially – a friend who has gone through the struggles, and he had to battle his way here, and he did that and I’m proud to call him a friend and I’m proud that he can now have an Olympic medal around his neck, because it’s quite a feeling.

Jacqueline: If you could pass on the theoretical torch to someone, who would you say, and why?

Patrick: As a skater, specifically?

Jacqueline: As a skater, thank you.

I want the younger generation to not only have a great place to train, but a place that inspires them outside of the skating rink.

Patrick: Wow. I think Nathan Chen from the US, I think he has… when I watch him, I spent some time training with him the past summer and he… talk about a kid who is talented. The drive he has and the determination and he actually is enjoyable watch. I like seeing he has beautiful lines. I think he comes from a gymnastics background so he chose those qualities. All I can say is that he’s only 18 and he’s already been pushed so far up into the limelight in the US and it’s pretty ferocious.

I just hope that he… I have a soft spot for him because I know that this is a crucial time. He needs to remember again not to lose sight of why he’s doing this when there’s so many people controlling what you’re doing, you easily lose track and you sometimes feel the pressure of having to do it for others, as opposed to himself. But he looks like he has a blast. He loves doing those quads, he loves learning new things, so I hope he doesn’t forget that.

Jacqueline: How was it winning the team gold, and did you feed off the success your teammates had like Meagan and Eric?

Patrick: Yeah, team gold was honestly the best start to these games. We’ve grown up together before we were close to being on the national team or an Olympic team. We were growing up as junior skaters – Tessa, Scott, Meagan, Eric – we’ve been the oldest friends and the longest national team members I think in Skate Canada history. So for us to be standing on that podium together is quite a moment. Meagan and Eric kicked it off in such a great way and it’s so cool to just stand up there with your best friends and have these cool medals around your neck, and just hugging each other constantly – shaking, grabbing each other and just experiencing the moment all together.

Patrick: Great question. I am planning to go see curling, hockey, I want to get up to the mountain and see big air, see slalom, snowboarding… I don’t get to go up to the mountain very often, being in a coastal sport. I want to see the mass start, because that’s a new discipline that they added in these games… I’m looking forward to it, to cheering my Canadian teammates and my friends. I’ve gotten a lot more friends now, being my third time here. A lot of familiar faces.

Jacqueline: What’s the Canada House like?

Patrick: It’s awesome. It’s way bigger than it’s ever been – it’s the largest Canada House we’ve had. It’s open to public, so we have our rivals coming in and cheering us along as well and what an experience to have a place to feel like you’re at home and a place to just meet. Every time I want to meet up with my family, we say okay, where do we meet? Instead of saying ‘oh, this corner? No, let’s meet at the Canada House’, that’s a good meeting spot, and then we go from there.

There is a lot of plaid, a lot of wood.

Jacqueline: So we have a question from Leslie as well. Can’t wait to see you in London for Stars On Ice. But she also wants to know would you consider coaching?

Patrick: Absolutely. It’s an intimidating idea, because I’ve always been on one side of that, and on the receiving end. I’ve never been the one to teach people, so it’s going to be an experience. I’m going to get my certification first and foremost, and then I hope to start a skating school in Vancouver maybe not immediately – it’s going to take a couple of years, I’m sure. That sort of thing takes time. But BC is a beautiful place. I’ve learned to love it. I’ve learned to appreciate it, so I want the younger generation to not only have a great place to train, but a place that inspires them outside of the skating rink.

Patrick: Starting in 2010 and then now being 8 years later in Korea and having a team gold medal, I’ve just grown so much and I’ve learned so much and… Even though with two silver medals in Sochi, I’d never thought I’d keep growing and be a better athlete, a better person, and I feel like I’ve been able to accomplish that here.

Patrick: [In 2008] Every skate I was fighting for it, and I never thought I would be able to beat Jeffrey Buttle. I just kept learning, kept trying to push myself every year… even to the last skate yesterday, I still am experiencing becoming a better person and a better athlete mentally.

Scott: Along the way, were you able to find a joy in the whole process? {A very important question! Joy was something that I observed was missing from Patrick’s performances in general throughout the last three seasons. Here, Patrick politely sidestepped the question by talking instead about how he learned to love the process. It’s not quite the same as deriving joy from it.}

Patrick: Because I had a lot of talent as a young skater, I let that push me through the days of training and there wasn’t as much structure needed. But this last drive to these 2018 games I have learned to love the training and love the process and I love the method to the madness and the strategy and all of that made the training and the road here so much more enjoyable so that when I got on the ice to do my program I felt I had left nothing on the table, truly, and I gave it my all.

“I can live my life with a huge smile on my face and look forward to the next challenges.”

Scott: Were you able to chase it (fear) away, Patrick?

Patrick: Absolutely. Yesterday I told myself coming to these games, the one thing I wanted to do was to step on that ice and not skate with that worried look and feel like I can own that ice and I deserved those four minutes and forty seconds of performance by myself. It was such an exhilarating experience, such a different one than Sochi.

Gosh, my parents have gone through so much from the first days I started skating to now. They’ve grown together with me. My parents have, I think, been there for the days that have not been great, of course. They never lost hope. They experienced me leaving home and training on my own in Michigan and… but they still came to every single competition and they were still there to support me every step of the way. I couldn’t ask for a better experience, I’ve been so lucky, and there’s Liz like… (laughs watching the video of his parents and girlfriend) She’s very, very stressed, as you can tell. I’m so glad she was there with my parents, because the three of them have contributed so much to my career.

Scott: What do you want to do now? What will Patrick Chan hope to become?

Patrick: It’s a bit weird now. As an athlete, you’re always striving for a gold medal at the Olympic games. I kind of got one, and maybe I didn’t in some people’s eyes but… at the end of the day I left these games and I’ve left this career having grown so much. And now I have all these amazing experiences and amazing tools to move forward, and I can live my life with a huge smile on my face and look forward to the next challenges and I hope… I love Vancouver, I love BC and it’s such a beautiful place and I feel like there should be some amazing skaters coming out of there who feel inspired by hopefully the skating academy that I might start, and then just Vancouver as a place. It’s such an inspiring place to live.

Scott: Patrick, congratulations on everything that you’ve done. It’s been great to follow your career. You’re a great champion.

Patrick: Thanks, Scott.

A great champion, indeed – one who persevered to the end and reaped the rewards!

Patrick Compliments Yuzuru Hanyu

The short program, I skated in the group before Yuzuru, so I was able to run up to the stands and watch with my family. Yuzu and I have had definitely… we’ve gone through the whole… the last four years together, five years, leading up from before Sochi to now, and it’s amazing how I’ve been able to evolve my perception of watching him.

At first it was like a competitor, a nemesis, and… I hated him, but now I really was able, and that’s something to be proud of for me. I was able to sit there and say, “Wow, I appreciate this skate. He truly deserves this. And he skated the best out of everybody; every other man in that event.

I tip my hat to him because he really has proven that he is the best in the world on this day. So, it’s amazing to watch, and he really did command that ice that day.

And here’s more from the interview:

since it's geoblocked, here is summary/transcription on what Patrick said during his Facebook live on other skaters (he mentioned Yuzu, Javi, and Nathan)

“I wasn’t happy, I had no energy, I was exhausted and I had no desire to go to the rink.”

The Great Generation of Skaters

Think about this: #TeamCanada may never see a greater generation of figure skaters or athletes in one sport. Tessa Virtue, Scott Moir, Patrick Chan, Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford combined to win: 11 medals at the #Olympics and eight World Championships #PyeongChang2018

Chan is the current-day proprietor of the lost art of actual skating that Colson loved and taught… Too many skaters these days don’t know how to work the blade properly. Too many skate on the flats of their blades, not the edges, which allow great sweeping curves. Too many now focus on learning jumps, rather than on skating. And it’s impossible, as Chan says, to work in a lot of blade expertise, when you are tearing up and down the ice, doing quad after quad. Nathan Chen? Watch him. He goes up and down the ice. How else to accomplish six quads in a program?

Walia said. “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Back then, I had never seen anything like that: this skater that could just fly across the ice, doing really difficult turns that you would think you would have to do a lot slower. Doing this complex type of movements with speed: no other skater does it like him.”

Ice dancers –they who must use edges and turns and Choctaws and all the rest – respect Chan in spades. They bow to him. “I’m lucky that Patrick can jump,” Moir said. “Because if he switched over, I’d be in trouble.”

“I think we would all love to skate like that and fly around the ice like he does so effortlessly. He’s a skater’s skater.”

One must see Chan skate live, he added. “If you see him on TV, you can’t feel your hair blow back when you are close to him on the ice, because he has so much speed and command. That’s what makes him Patrick Chan. We’ve been blessed to have that.”

Jeffrey Buttle, who skated with Chan as a competitor, and worked with him as a choreographer, says: “People who talk about ‘Chanflation’ have probably never been competitive skaters. My legs hurt watching him sustain those ridiculous edges and turns. He is literally a master of skating.”

Walia says Chan’s basic skating was so far superior to his competitors, there should have been a gap between his marks and theirs. “And there should also have been a gap if he made a mistake. There should have been a gap [technically] for that if he made a mistake. He would lose credit for a mistake and mathematically, he did. But if he made a mistake, he still had his skills to fall back on.”

“He covers the ice unlike anybody else in the sport that I’ve seen,” she said. “I feel like there should be someone else on the ice with him at the same time, so you can compare. He’s the best of the best.”

His turns are so complex that Weaver says: “I couldn’t do that if I worked on it for 10 years.”

Chan’s transitions? “It’s a combination of different footwork and turns,” Walia said. “It’s not one turn. It’s the way maybe he does something with a lean, how he can take a basic movement and make it so difficult, do really difficult things with it, that no one else can do. It’s quite special.”

For this quadrennial, Chan has been caught in a system that does not reward his strengths. He knew he could not win. Partway through the system, he readjusted his goals to win his tenth Canadian men’s title, a record, and help his teammates win the team gold medal. He accomplished both those missions before he even started the individual event, which became his goodbye wave.

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